What you are going to read into now, is so impactive for our Audio, it is beyond comprehension. And first point is : it really is. Also mine (read and not to forget : I don't know what is going on for real). Try not to be confused by the two fully separated subjects and appliances this is about.

Let's dive in ...

No two weeks ago, by a kind of accident, I set a 16/32 processor to utilize 10/20 cores only. N.b.: This can easily be done in the BIOS. Now it has become a 10/20 for everything that sees and uses it, thus also our playback software.I did it because something drew too much power and with less cores active, less power is consumed. All nothing strange and all so good so far.

At the moment I had to do this, it was already in my mind to apply this to the 14/28 I was again listening to, noticing that this had its own goodies in the Highs I knew from the 16/32 (the both sound very similar if not the same anyway) but it lacked the specialty Mid I knew from the genuine 10/20.And thus at the same day I was fiddling with that power consumption (in a customer's new Mach III system) I applied the utilization of the 10/20 cores to the 14/28 which was assembled in my own Mach III.And right out of that box I received the best - most "genuine" sound ever. Really so.

Maybe I must stop describing SQ as such, because superlatives rolling over previous superlatives at some stage fail to work out, so let's say I stick to "genuine" for now, as if it would be a "so-so" improvemend, but for the better anyway. No. Nothing of that kind. It was by far the largest - and foremost unexpected improvement ever. What I mean is, I expected to maybe now the 14/28 in 10/20 mode to sound similar to the original 10/20, but nothing of that order was in place and instead a new magnitude of SQ occurred. So huh ?

While I was contemplating how this could be, and was thinking of matter like the overhead of the processor, normally used to serve 14/28 cores, now could be applied to 10/20 cores and thus more "attention" per core, so to speak, the next tweak was luring around the corner already : a prototype of the Lush^2.

OK, cool. A Lush^2. Must be a Mark II or so, right ?Wrong. The power-of-two implies a multitude of Lush but in a way you maybe won't expect : in its possibilities.

The Lush^2 has so many possibilities that I would need to write software to explore them all, but on rough estimate it could be 10000 at least. So the Luch^2 is 10000 Lush cables.Now what.All right, we'll see later about that.

My prototype Lush only exhibited (I think) 5 "situations", so luckily I could only try 5 as well. That would be easy enough.

The first one ? dead sound.The second one ? strange sound.The third one ? Bingo !!

... and just as I expected I could find "a best" Lush within that prototype Lush^2. And I had yet better sound again from the newly formed 10/20 which is a 14/28. OK, what I could notice perhaps was now so much bass that for the first time since using the Orelo MKII speakers I had to idea to maybe tune down the bass a bit (DSP) because I heard a slight coloring coming from it. But otherwise the properties were so much of "generosity" in all frequencies, that I took it for granted and meanwhile thought that maybe I got too old to try the 4th and 5th Lush^2 proto setup. So I just did not do that and instead listened to it for about a week.Until three days ago, because then a real Lush^2 was ready.

I suppose the time has come to explain a bit about the possibilities of the Lush^2, or actually what they comprise for its elements.

There we go. In the right top corner we see three silverly colored hatched shields denoted W, Y and R. The White is the original shield and the purple under that in the drawing is the isolation as we have it in the original Lush (let's call that Lush^1 for today). Looking upwards in the drawing, the purple isolation, the Yellow shield, the again purple isolation and the Red shield and a last purple isolation, are all new to the Lush^2. The braid (hatched yellow) is the same as we know it from the Lush^1.

Now try to imagine that the Lush^1 is all about (or at least foremost) the dielectric and how that forms the imdedance and further properties. This was explicitly thought over, or at least the best to my knowledge. With this, let's keep in mind that I trief to make a USB cable not with USB specs but with Audio specs. And say that this worked about because almost without exception people perceive the analogues sound of it (I never counted really, but we sold I think close to 2000 of them).

Now the Lush^2. Well, I can honestly tell you that I would not be able to tell the properties of it with these now 3 shields. Of course, we could say that 3 shields are better than 1 or something like that, but point is : I already have the empirical knownledge that this won't bring us far.So read on ...

JSSG 360

I can't avoid explaining what the base of the ^2 part is because it isn't my invention in full. So credit where credit is due, although nothing is new there too - but say this is about the particular application for the Lush cable.

What is known (or at least I knew it) is how "grounding" as such works out differently for a shielded cable when in parallel "over" the shield an other wire is drawn. Thus, solder a normal wire to both ends of the shield and now we have in parallel the shield and that wire. Can't do much, you'd say.But it does. It changes the shielding properties wildly.Actually this is the "JSSG" part; It stands for John Swenson Shielding Guidelines and it was brought forward in a Lush-tweaking communicty (over at CA).

Because people are creative, people like lmitsche/Larry & austinpop/Rajiv, thought to make a "360 degrees" version of his potentially JSSG'd Lush. This is how the the JSSG 360 emerged as a general shielding application to cables in general.From elsewhere the topology of 3 shields were taken, and form there things got mad because of the confusion of what people connected to which. Should the shields be connected ? be connected at one end only ? should there be isolation between them anyway ?Fun is : the tweaks can be applied around the original cable (sleeve/braid) - or at least that is how people are able to do it in practice. This won't work out 100% equal to a "native" situation, but that is OK as long as the sound improves.

Courtesy of BCRich

Back to the Lush^2 possibilities, let's look here for an example of a few, out of 1000s'. Thus mind you, these are only examples, with the remainder to your imagination, because really everything is possble. Everything for any combination you can think of. So just digest somewhat :

White is still the inner shield, Yellow the middle one and Red the outer one.Now try to envision how the first configuration on the top row will work out completelt different from the last one on the first row - there the middle shield floating but still contributing to the dielectric. Or what about the 2nd on the second row where all is connected in parallel, but floats (and do note that this is just legal and works bit-error free).

So, ready now for the big blast ? then here we go with the results.

There I was with my set Lush^2 real production cable. I had connected all like the very first config above. Btw, with that I anticipate some "crossed" shieling, with no real clue of how it would work out (maybe such a thing has ever been done before). So notice with this config that current might flow over the shield to begin with (thus also with Lush^1 which would only contain the White shield) and that currents now run into each other but separated by isolation. Some kind of "balanced" mode, but different. And FYI, would we want the "return path" not to be in the middle but outside ? no problem, because the Lush^2 can be onfigured for that too (again, really all countless combinations are possible).

As said, there I was. I listened to the 14/28 set as a 10/20 with this config and noticed this very explicit clean undistorted highs. And on a side note I asked around over here what was perceived according to them, but all what came from that over and over again was "clear". Thus not per se undistorted, what I wanted to hear from them (because that was my own perception). OK, fine.

Next up was the 10/20 processor with unchanged Lush^2.Wow !! that did not last for 30-40 minutes because I got crazy of too much bass and too less/uninteresting highs. What a louzy USB cable that suddenly was !I recalled the 10/20 processor to sound very very different so I thought to make it sound the same again as I was used to. I only connected the White shield, just as how the original Lush^ is set up. And bingo. The very same sound as far as I can recall it.This is really wonderful because I really hoped for that (the least people can enjoy is the native Lush).

The sound in general

Well, what to say.From the few combinations I applied, I already know thata. the Sound Quality can improve massively from the original Lush;b. you can tweak the sound to all directions which is about the balance.

Ad a.This is what everybody reports who applied it - though they applied mainly one situation : all connected in parallel at both ends.

Ad b.In an in fact crazily good sounding situation / config, I could easily show how a walking lower keyed (bass) line missed 6dB or so on the upper note. This normally goes unnoticed, but once you have the focus on this it may/will occur.

As a bonus, I can tell you what I actually hunted for :After having heard the 10/20 (say from a few weeks ago the last time), the 14/28 could not satisfy me for 100% any more because it lacked the specialty the 10/20 has in an other area (it is much more mid emphasized). For this reason I found the 14/28 sound too thin (all is relative and I should not have listened to the 10/20). This in itself was thus solved by the kind of accidental setting the 14/28 to 10/20 cores with a for me perfect balance, but the Lush^2 showed that it could go all directions after all. It is only that I don't know how yet, and also that it will be about too many combinations to ever try in my life time. Thus, a typical community thing, perhaps.

How this is able to emphasize frequencies is technically beyond me yet, but all will be related to RF/EMI stuff which may be unmeasurable. Also, whether it is the environment hammering on the cable (and audio bits) or whether it is the cable hammering on the environment (like the D/A process) ... I can't tell. Fact will be that possibly even either situation is now massively prevented by the shielding but depending on how we do it. I myself am as far that of the original Lush^1 would coincidentally have sounded the best for these matters, the chance of that will have been 1:10000 (or whatever the number of possibilities).

One last remark about the sound, just because I noticed it;It is the supermost easy to create a more umpf than what you were used to (that too is reported by others). This in itself is very interesting because "important". It is key to the more genuine sound (I'd say), never mind we got quite far already regarding this with the B'ASS amplifier in one's NOS1a/G3. While this too is an "emphasis" to frequency it does *not* work out like a shift towards an other emphasis. It just seems to work on its own. And for that matter, it is relatively easy to put the emphasis on two or even more frequencies. And in addition (or it's the same ?) what Cisks here repeatedly says is that "all is so separate". On its own. N.b.: This is not really how I observe it, but - or because what I hear is that all becomes so undistorted. Make that "not mixed up with the other sounds" and we have Ciska's judgment.

For prices, see here.I think we managed nicely with the price and also we now allow for a shorter cable of 40cm, just because I'm confident that the configuration can allow for every possible anomaly-attack.Anyway, people already owning a Lush^1 will receive a 50 euros discount per ordered Lush^2 (credited to the PayPal account).The 300cm was removed from the gamma because we feel it just will take too long to make and will be too expensive for that reason. Apologies to those who wanted to opt for 300cm.

I sincerely hope that without exception now everyone can find a very best sound which is also ultimately better than what they were used to.

PS: You won't be able to make the connections without a guide how to to it. This guide will be obtained for you on paper for each of the examples you see in above diagrams. From there you will easily be able to make any connection you like.

Don't look forward to trying all (or even a fraction of) the combinations though

I guess we'll help each other a bit with it.The first has arrived by now (yesterday), a few more will today and again a few more tomorrow.I am planning to make a kind of experience schematic (and of course I already forgot half of it by now).

My post from yesterday was about so much raving, that I didn't know what to actually say, but this :

OK, I don't believe what I'm hearing.

For background maybe - My Lush^2 has been broken in for a first few days and I didn't even saw that coming. Also, my mentioned "prototype" was a tweak of my by now 15 or so months old Lush^1, which was for the purpose of being broken in already. At least that is how it is in my mind. Otherwise ? otherwise I completely forgot about the new Lush^2 I am using now and that this indeed could use some breaking in.

Actually day before yesterday I already had something of a "wow, what's next then ?!?", but yesterday ... no words.Really, I can not find words any more for what this all does. One thing I am sure about : this officual Lush^2 must be way way better (working out) than the tweaked ones, or otherwise I'd hear similar raving expressions from others, but then in English people know for it. I just can't.

Yesterday something like "eletric butterflies" came to my mind, but then of a faster type - maybe mots. So the "shattering" I have been talking about regarding the Mach III is now that, but 10 fold. The mid detail is now so stupidly enormous that it is sheer impossible that it hadn't been there before. It is too loud to miss, so to speak.

It is now not spooky any more, but completely "impossible". Still it exists. It is right here and everywhere (around me). Together with that, it is all so "mild" regarding possible hurting ears stuff. Nothing hurts. All is mighty interesting.

Interesting is just the same how on earth this can exist for a digital (USB) cable which already was superb in mysterious ways of course (but at least I "did" that explicitly), this now hugely superceded by means of a couple of specially connected shields. This I did NOT work on for design as such, unless it is about the design on the possibilities itself (the way they can connect).

For now and for those who want a start :My Lush^2 in its IIRC 2nd attempt of connecting, is connected exactly the way the JSSG phenomenon proposes :Inner shield connected from front to end (connectors); the middel and outer shield connected in parallel, those not connected to the connectors. See below (and those already possessing one, will understand the schematic and how to connect).

I have had the original Lush for several weeks now and like it very much but having read the 100% success that C.A members have had with the JSSG 360 tweak I decided to try it myself. I had high hopes but unfortunately the 360 sheilding has resulted in a decrease in SQ - a marked 'digital' sound and bloated bass that I didn't get using my pre-tweaked Lush.

As you have obviously done a lot of work trialing the new Lush^2 do you think I should give it more time to burn in or did you find that with all the many permutations/setups available with Lush^2 that some did not suit your hifi setup and SQ was degraded as compared to using the Lush mk1?Anyway, new Lush^2 has got to be a one of a kind in USB cable-land so congratulations!

or did you find that with all the many permutations/setups available with Lush^2 that some did not suit your hifi setup and SQ was degraded as compared to using the Lush mk1?

For 100% sure, that. And mind you, I can't tell at all yet the chance of running into a wrong(ly sounding) configuration but I am pretty sure that where "a" config can work out for the better, the other may just as well work out for the worse;As I said earlier on, the original Lush has been set up for a technically balanced situation (which was subjective to our ears over here) and all what's done to it would theoretically shift that balance to ...Yes, to what. To the better because that was still possible or to the worse. So if we recall how I described in the first page(s) of the original Lush that it required 5 or 6 attempts to find the proper direction of that same balance we are taking about, then you can just as well interpret that as "more or less shielding". Well, sort of, because it is about more or less dieletric (behavior). Thus envision, you make one cable (which includes buying material - wrong. A next one - wrong. A next - hmm. A next, yes, better. A next - bingo ! Meanwgile though you're weeks further and you don't like to overdo it, which also incorporates the "step size". IOW, there you give up because it is good enough.

The JSSG 360 tweaks are, if you ask me, just luck (plus we don't know of each other what "better" actually means because to an extent we're all subjective listeners, right ?).

The Lush^2 will and can not work out the same as you guys' tweaks because you won't be using the same materials, and might you coincidentally do use the same materials, the chance is virtually zero that you apply the same thickness hence tightness. Everybody will be doing this differently which already is caused by - a supposedly same - metal braid but which the one stretches more than the other, once it is around the cable. This already affects the shielding (such a shield is always expressed in a percentage of surface covering, like 90% (you can still see through it) or 100% (all just closed) or 110% (it overlaps partly) etc. but also the working (the work out) of the dielectric.And FYI what we (Phasure) additionally add is the "crossing" of the fields the schield implies (or prevents).Obviously the Lush^2 is already totally different because the dielectric is controlled (is under our control) while all you people can do is wrap a couple of layers around the original dielectric, not even thinking about its effects. We, thus, start at the core of the cable, give it it's first new metal shield (of certain (controlled) "airines" for tightness plus also coverage (the mentioned 90, 100, 110%), put an isolation layer around that which is even more important (because it is really part of the dielectric), have a next layer of "metal braid" again, isolate that again because we feel it is a good thing for the dielectric and which you people will not have applied, to lastly put the yello sleeve as we know it over the lot.And you know what ? now the Lush^2 is more flexible than the original Lush while the original is actually for 100% there regarding the (amount of) material used.

My previous post told about the same config (for conections) as the JSSG 360 and that sounding vastly superior to anything else for normal Lush and the few (I think 2 only !) other combinations I tried for the Lush^2. And again, I just stopped there because it is too hard to interrupt your playback session of the day to try something better while it just went "10x" better, plus a next day you long for that sound again thus again you won't tweak. Right ? Will I ever try an other config ? of course - and probably when something starts to annoy me and I think it could be improved on. And as you already know Tim, the "config" makes or breaks it and the least what will happen is that it will sound "different".

In an attempt to answer your question better : what sounded "a best" for the particular Audio PC and *its* configuration - like for a 14/28 core processor (as how we refer to them for the Mach III PC) set to 10/20 cores - and which was the Lush^2 fully serially connected (see very first diagram in the first post), does not sound good at all in the native 10/20 core processor setup. So this varies per PC (in this case per processor because the PC is 100% the same otherwise) and this is exactlt what can be expected from a shielding setup. Thus, whether it is the shield config which prevents PC noise to enter the signal wire, or whether it is the USB cable which radiates and the shielding setup prevents influence on to other components ... the former is the most likely because what we'll change with the different processor setups is different radiation from the processors (and maybe more, up to in the motherboard).Conclusion : what sounds best of another person, may not sound the best for you. And not because of your ears but because of what the environment (mainly the PC) depicts.

And the fun of the Lush^2 should be that you can control it.

Kind regards,Peter

PS: I'd find it hard to believe that this shielding itself requires burn in. So the "signalling" part of your Lush did not change (this is plus data, minus data, ground, and 5V if you use that) and only whe the shield carries current, burn in could be in order. Does it carry current ? It should not because it isn't connected (see yellow and red lines in the picture of my previous post). But I can't be definitive because I can't tell what forces are at play, also thinking of micro level stuff we may not even know about. I mean, who would have guessed a few months ago that stupid shielding would "make" the sound of a USB cable, which USB cable in itself already shouldn't even be able to influence the sound at all. But as we know ... (we don't know much)

This could be a special notice to all people we dear, and it tells you not to be disappointed if soon you need to wait literally months before we could produce your Lush^2. And, while I could say "4 weeks" at some stage, this may be extended to 8 weeks on the fly. How does this work ?

First off, like with the original Lush, the Lush^2 is not made to stock. With the original Lush we were always able to keep up (somehow) and to be honest only the past 3-4 months or so we could finally produce a few for stock. But, this only told us that we could readily ship instead of making a few quickly on an ad-hoc base. It was also good because in the same period the Mach III PC emerged, and that too consumes time, obviously.

Secondly, while the customer base of the Lush^1 slowly but steadily grew over the past year, this stream of orders now will stop and will continue in the Lush^2. This implies just the normal workload. But where it really impacts is the old customer base which may (will ?) order the new Lush^2, with 100s at a time, if they only learn the news that it exists.

On the particular webshop page we now maintain a prediction of the lead time (see bottom of the page). This incorporates current Lush^2 orders, but it also will incorporate all other orders like for the Mach III with the clear notice that such orders will have prevalence for the simple reason of the Lush^2 being there to stay, while a PC topology will be obsolete in 2-3 years of time. So in the end it is not allowed to tell a customer to wait for 2 months for his Stealth III because we are making Lush cables.

Moral : you obviously are allowed to wait as long as you deem OK, but please never complain that you are waiting forever for your Lush^2 to arrive. I say this, because this really happened more than once and towards each such beloved customer it seems to require justification how we, for example, went out for holidays instead of working on the product. So Yes, we are all a bit obsessed. Well, don't miss out ?So the latter is all this post is about, maybe foreseeing a larger flood of orders. If you can bear the wait, all is fine !

for connctor A the Black and White wires are connected (inner shield connected to the connector) and that the Yellow and Red wires are connected (middle and outer shield are connected but are not connected to the connector);

for connector B the Black and White wires are connected (inner shield connected to the connector) - and that is all (middle and outer shield are open).

The completely changes the sound from a somewhat congested (too white) highs to ever so lasting colored cymbals. Btw, this is what I had in mind with it for a change (I found the highs too profound).What came with it is a super fluid/liquid bass which sings and plays music. I actually never experienced the bass like that.

Side note : this was a one-go change and immediately it worked for the so much better. The very first thing you will notice is the bass.

Because all is more liquid, the over-emphasized "electric butterflies" lessened (with which I am OK with) but what's occurring foremost is the so great emphasis on the snare drum. Don't ask me how that happened ...First off its sound comes along with the cymbals now rendering much better, and with that the snare can be hit hard while it sounds superb (no distortion, no harshness, full of "shell"). And well, while I say "hit" hard, I better make that "now sounds loud". It is as if each drummer is now sort of slamming the snare, which in all honesty, always is profound in real life. It is just that I think that with music reproduction we are not used to it much. Because of this, each tempo (like up-beat etc.) becomes more profound and lets you go with the music super easy.

Apologies fo an again strange and new-ish description of sound, but I guess new universes incur for that ?

Hi PeterAny chance you can post actual photos (instead of drawings) of both ends as you have them configured?

I connected my Lush^2 as I think you said but I am not certain. I am not hearing a large difference, but I do think there is noticeable increase in bass response of my system. I am still evaluating and will report back in a day or 2. Thanks

but I do think there is noticeable increase in bass response of my system.

So Fred, thus you do hear a noticable difference.

Quote

Any chance you can post actual photos (instead of drawings) of both ends as you have them configured?

I have no spare cables right at this moment, and my own is configured as in my previous post plus it is a bit dark here (5 am), it is connected in my system and ... why actually ?

Let's say that I wrote this to you for an easy start :

You can start with connecting B to W at both ends. Now you have the normal Lush. But it may sound different.The jumpers can be put to the free pins (both sides) to avoid shortcutting with anything.

Then you'd take one end, and put the Black wire to the pin with the red dot. The White wire you put on the pin right next to it. On the 4 remaining pins you'd put the two jumpers (to prevent shortcutting with anything. The Yellow and Red wires would stay loose.On the other end you'd do exactly the same.

Of course you can make a photo and I can confirm whether you did it correctly. But you will have ...

Regards,Peter

PS: Like this, but pull off the Yellow and Red and put a jumber at that position(s) instead. Apply it to the B connector the very same.